Summary:Get ready to experience FORMULA ONE cars, teams and circuits with F1 Race Stars from Codemasters Racing. F1 RACE STARS is a fast-to-the-fun arcade racing game for all ages featuring the official FORMULA ONE cars, teams and circuits as they've never been seen before. Drivers including LewisGet ready to experience FORMULA ONE cars, teams and circuits with F1 Race Stars from Codemasters Racing. F1 RACE STARS is a fast-to-the-fun arcade racing game for all ages featuring the official FORMULA ONE cars, teams and circuits as they've never been seen before. Drivers including Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel have been transformed into personality-packed heroes bursting with charm and character and stunning FORMULA ONE locations have become exhilarating racing theme parks designed for speed and wheel-to-wheel competition.…Expand

There's not exactly a slew of karting games on consoles these days, so F1 Race Stars is a welcome addition to the genre and a wonderfully crafted little racing game in its own right. As a 4-player party game, F1 Race Stars is pretty much indispensable. And it's the perfect Holiday gift for little Billy too.

In the end, F1 Race Stars is a decent kart racing title. The genre basics are here, with some good track design and a goofy vibe. The presentation is cheery enough, and the effort put forth into making a standard kart racer a bit more technical and involving is commendable. However, the lack of track variety hurts, as does the bland weapon payload, and there isn't much to make the experience memorable. If you're an F1 fan who wants something more accessible, this is a good start. If you're a kart racing fan, however, there are a few other titles you could play instead.

F1 Race Stars was a bit of a gamble for Codemasters and although they may not have completely pulled it off, it's an admirable attempt that should be appreciated for what it is – A much less serious excursion for the F1 license and a much needed injection of fun into a notoriously po-faced series.

The game features online multiplayer and some other standard features, as well as being able to log your progress with Codemasters' online service, Racenet. However, it's still not Mario Kart, no matter how charming the presentation and attitude.

F1 Race Stars strives to be an alternative to Mario Kart. But the weapons systems are unbalanced, the AI relies more on cheating itself to the top spot than battling it out on the track. With all the good ideas and the nice visuals Codemasters forgot to put the most important part into this fun racer: fun!

Loved this game found it to be the best Karting game on the 360 Console, for all of those complaining about it being a crappy Mario Kart cloneLoved this game found it to be the best Karting game on the 360 Console, for all of those complaining about it being a crappy Mario Kart clone just go play Mario Kart. This game is trying to be something different from the face that has been plaguing the karting genre for generations now. This game does require you to use something very unique. Its called a brake and on most console its the left trigger. I know amazing they would include something like that, to me thats a much better way to take a corner then just drifting and getting a boost from it to boot. I urge you try the demo just dont look at it like Mario Kart look at it like its meant to be looked at. As a new type of Karting game that refuses to bow down to the Mario norm.…Expand

For those that are complaining that this isn't a complete Mario Kart ripoff, Codemasters wanted to release a family-type racing game, similarFor those that are complaining that this isn't a complete Mario Kart ripoff, Codemasters wanted to release a family-type racing game, similar to that of Mario Kart. They wanted to stick to F1 style handling, however, so those that complain that they can't drift around corners should probably look into how F1 works (I'll give you a hint: brake into corners, accelerate out). While the handling far less realistic than it is in Codemaster's F1 series, it still feels similar to the style, but a lot more forgiving, and is designed to appeal to a different type of audience. The maps are very colourful, and the game is quite fluid/polished as typical of most Codemasters games. If you're looking for a mario kart clone, you're looking in the wrong place. Codemasters definitely could have done a better job with customization and better items (instead of 3/4 of abilities involving differently coloured bubbles). While I think comparing it to Mario Kart is a bit unfair, both can be enjoyed by the same person for different reasons. I give it a 7 because I really enjoyed it, but I felt Codemasters could have done a lot better in terms of items and customization.…Expand

Was looking forward to this game being a Massive F1 fan and the stunning F1 games from Codemasters.

The graphics and cartoon effects onWas looking forward to this game being a Massive F1 fan and the stunning F1 games from Codemasters.

The graphics and cartoon effects on this game are great and very fun, but once you start playing, the fun pretty much stops, its one of the most frustrating games I have ever played and not fun at all!

Constantly you are taken out by opponents powers, and they are always faster than you, its very difficult to win, and if your car gets broken once or twice, you can kiss goodbye to winning the race, as usually the winner will win by about 20 - 30 seconds, while you spend most of the race looking for the pits driving around slowly.

The controls are horrific also, it feels like they did this game in a few weeks, and spent all the time on the graphics which as said, look very nice.

This is no where near as good as Mario Kart or Sonic & Sega racing, shall be trading this game in the weekend already, wouldn't even buy this game if it was in the bargin bin, is truly one of the worst racing games I've ever played and just so tedious, its not fun at all. Avoid and buy sonic and sega racing instead for a tenner or the new one.…Collapse

Terrible game! A Mario Kart clone of the worst kind, which try's and fails spectacularly to incorporate F1 dynamics with fantasy power ups,Terrible game! A Mario Kart clone of the worst kind, which try's and fails spectacularly to incorporate F1 dynamics with fantasy power ups, inability to power-slide (vital if you want a successful MK clone) and long dull tracks. The result, a shameless xmas cash in attempt, where I believe only young children or non-gaming adults will enjoy. AVOID, especially at full retail price!…Expand

I love formula 1. I have played Codemasters Simulations for the last three years and after playing F1 Race Stars they really should just stickI love formula 1. I have played Codemasters Simulations for the last three years and after playing F1 Race Stars they really should just stick to that. Karting game classics like Mario Kart and to some extent Sega All Stars Racing have nothing to worry about here. The level design and even the characatured are lovely to look at and have been designed well. However the handling and the weapons in the game really are awful. The game has tried to keep the F1 car handling and this does not work in Karting. You do not have the ability to drift the car. This may not sound bad but the tracks are winding and tight and often you have to break heavily into a corner. This is fine in a simulation game but in a arcade kart racer this is just useless. On the higher speed modes the cars are impossible to drive and then throwing in weapons means even the best drivers can almost never win. It's just a random mess and luck plays such a huge part. I thought that the game was going to make arcade versions of the classic tracks from F1 with the same general layouts, this would have been fun as it would have been familiar and also unique but the tracks just do not make any sense in this way.
There is no real difference between the teams you can choose to drive either apart from a few unique weapons. These often feel unbalanced as some teams have very useful weapons such as added slipstream boost or firing homing weapons backwards, while some teams have really pointless specials which seem to do nothing apart from allow you to ram opponents. This bring me onto another issue. The contact with other racers causes no end of issues. The amount of time I kept being slowed down as the cars kept sticking together. In other games the karts are pushed apart and the fast car often come out on top. On this game it's random and often both cars almost stop. Generally the collision detection is stupid. At one point I pushed a car off the track only to find the game respawned them IN FRONT OF ME! What is that about. They should have been a good few seconds behind me. Obviously if I fall off the track I loose loads of time but the game does not seem to make the same rules. I also felt the game gave too much boost to players towards the back of he running. I had almost a half lap lead on one race and within a lap they had actually caught and certain me. Just didn't seem right.
I wanted this game to do something half decent, but it was so avoid of anything absorbing that I felt frustrated and could not play anymore. Give this a miss and get Sega All Stars Racing Transformed instead. That game is much better and best karting game on Xbox. Not quite up there with Mario Kart Double Dash but a really good effort.…Expand

While the game is fun for what it is There are no voices for Michael Schumacher or Nico Rosberg. I'm amazed that no reviewer that I can findWhile the game is fun for what it is There are no voices for Michael Schumacher or Nico Rosberg. I'm amazed that no reviewer that I can find anywhere, made any mention of this... so much for thorough in-depth reviews these days...
The issue itself is small, but it's the spirit behind not completing the game that bothers me.…Expand